The Local Voices blog is a new initiative that encourages self-awareness and self-efficacy. It provides personal perspectives from our medical community that reflect life, beauty, and lessons learned in SWVA and rural localities. We are actively seeking residents, physicians, medical students, or anyone in the healthcare community to share their stories and experiences from living… Continue reading Call for Submissions
Category: Local Voices
The Drive to Succeed
Before I joined the Lonesome Pine Family Medicine Residency Program in Norton, I took a long career break. I thought my biggest challenge would be getting back into medicine with younger, “fresh out of med school" residents. It turns out, that was not it at all. I live in Kingsport, TN. Most of my rotations… Continue reading The Drive to Succeed
Changing the World
"...when the visit is over, I have solved one real problem. Just one, maybe a relatively small one. But that grateful patient, on that day, leaves armed with concrete information that will improve their health. I didn’t rewrite history, but I put a ripple in the water. " I had the audacity in my youth, to… Continue reading Changing the World
Field of Dreams: Rural Medicine
With myths of outdated equipment, poor quality of training, and little variety in clinical cases, Rural Medicine often comes in last place on the list of dream jobs. Of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth. As a former Internal Medicine resident in small town, rural America, I found that Rural Medicine provided an… Continue reading Field of Dreams: Rural Medicine
Symbiosis
The Graduate Medical Education Consortium board met recently for a strategic retreat. Since we had new members, the dreaded icebreaker appeared, that activity collegial strangers detest in professional gatherings. It was a simple icebreaker: answer the question HOW DID YOU GET HERE? As the nine board members described their routes into medicine and academia, a… Continue reading Symbiosis
Why I Chose to be a Physician Assistant
From a young age, I always found science fascinating, and as I progressed through high school and college, I also found that I had a strong desire to help people in my rural community, so the decision to choose a career in healthcare seemed natural. When choosing what role I wanted to have in the… Continue reading Why I Chose to be a Physician Assistant
Congress Needs YOU!
The National Rural Health Association hosts an Annual Policy Institute, in which people with a passion for improving health in rural communities visit Washington, DC to encourage Members of Congress to support that passion. While I have experienced this event sixteen times, I will never forget my very first Policy Institute. Unsure of myself, terrified… Continue reading Congress Needs YOU!
Those “screw-ups” are now respected physicians
One of the best things about being part of the faculty at a small school is getting to know your students, and being in a position to intervene at critical points in their lives. We all see students who never put a foot wrong, who are organized and hard-working and smart, the students who earn… Continue reading Those “screw-ups” are now respected physicians
The Warmth of Rural Residency
"The true beauty of Norton, and the larger area of Southwest Virginia, lies within the people who constitute it." You do not have to look far to appreciate the beauty of Norton, Virginia. At every turn, you are greeted by mesmerizing mountains that span as far as the horizon, rugged trails that are sure to… Continue reading The Warmth of Rural Residency
Only Trying to Help
When I was presented with the opportunity to write this post, I spent some time looking into topics that would fit well with this blog. During my search, I came across the question, “Do people who are ‘only trying to help’ sometimes make things worse?” I found this question especially relevant to the work that… Continue reading Only Trying to Help
Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium 